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William 'Will' Kendrick
Will is Merlin's best friend and both see each others as brothers. He is part of SAS at the Artists on training. He teaches sniper school as a stand-in for Mawls Gibson and has 6 months left on his tour. He is known for disliking authority. Will becomes an almost honorary member of Excalibur, even receiving his own protection charm from Kathy. It is a pewter pendant with noticable heft and is "crafted into the shape of a shield, a Crusader's red cross bright against the polished metal." Personality Will is very similar to both Gwaine and Arthur in certain ways. With Gwaine, both are snipers with extremely good aim. They also share somewhat 'manwhorish' ways, although Will admits to Merlin in Desperate Measures that he's fancied Freya for years. Whether or not he's only following the script is unclear. The similarities with Arthur revolve around Merlin. Both men are incredibly protective of Merlin, and Will makes it clear to Arthur in War Games what he will do to him if he hurts his best friend. Will, despite his abrasive and rude attitude, is also a very intelligent quick thinker. This is highlighted again in Desperate Measures, where he makes a string of succesful seemingly snap decisions, (a/n - sibilance for the win. L) including shooting Bryn and 'editing' Merlin's cover. Merlin also describes Will's anal tendencies about time as similar to Arthur's planning. Will is a maths genius and is constantly figuring out variables and possibilties. Part of why Will dislikes Arthur is because Arthur can out-think him. The roots of Will's dislike for authority are currently unclear, although his mistrust of high ranking officers in the military can be put down, at least partially, to Cedric Walsh's treatment of Merlin. In a conversation, Footloose divulged some more background information on Will and what his deal was (and his relationship with Kay): "Will is a self-absorbed pillock who lost his mum when he was even younger than Merlin was when he lost his dad and made the decision to never let anyone get close to hi so that he can never get hurt that badly again. Merlin, Hunith and Alan are the only ones he really cares about, even if he's kind of a jerk about it. So he sleeps around and never has a serious relationship and has all the acquaintances but no real friends other than Merlin, because he keeps everyone else at arm's length and of course you ship him with Kay. It's beause Kay sees through all of Will's bullshit and just barges clean through whatever barriers Will puts up." (source) History His father is Allan Kendrick. His moher is called Betty, but it's unclear whether she's still alive. He still has two living grandmothers, though: Millie and Theresa (cf. The Play's the Thing). He discovered Merlin's magic when they were 4 (or 5) when he fell off a tree and Merlin saved his life. Will has collected the comic Captain Britain since he was very little (before/around Balinor leaving). He also went to secondary school and Cambridge University with Merlin, college unknown, although it isn't specified what degree he finally graduated with and he graduated with a maths degree. After the events of Urgent Assistance Required, Will followed Merlin to the Artists. In Regiment 21 Squad E, Merlin and Will were among the senior personnel and some of the toughest instructors to train new recruits. He taught sniper school as a stand-in for Mawls Gibson as well as Firearm drills. Relationships Has had a crush on Freya since Secondary school - at least he had a crush on her according to the script he had to follow while talking to Merlin. Merlin describes Will as being like his brother, as the pair grew up together; outside of Hunith and Gaius, Will was the only person to know about Merlin's magic prior to First Contact. Will's fiercly loyal to Merlin and very protective of him, to the point of being very distrustful of Arthur and risking his life to ensure Merlin's safety. He is distrustful of Arthur, and openly disrespects him though this might be more because of Merlin's history with Cedric Walsh than him actually disliking Arthur on his own. His opinion seems to have softened as of The Play's the Thing, as he tells Merlin that he's happy that the two are in a relationship, but nonetheless asks if it was Arthur who hit him. He appears to get along with Gwaine as a mutual respect for snipers thing. In Collaborations he shared a very wet, very open-mouthed (and with tongues) kiss with Kay in order to "not be noticed by a potential agent". Will insists that he is all for the birds, but there was that time in Amersterdam and the time that Merlin found Will with his finger up his arse to "see what it felt like" , that make us believe that he is at least a little bicurious. Affiliations Will, like the members of Excalibur, is a member of the SAS. After being noticed by the Directory due to his contact with Merlin during R&R, he is recruited by them to take part in Excalibur's mission. He joins the NWO undercover, and is supposedly to be their man on the inside. But actually he's working for MI-5. During Desperate Measures, he drops the pretence, and links up with Excalibur. Similar to Arthur, his main priority seems to simply be looking after Merlin and getting him back. Despite having the same goal, though, Will still maintains that Arthur is an ass and loudly proclaims his dislike. Quotes "I can't believe I didn't see it before." Arthur pointed accusingly at Will and said, "You're a fucking hypocrite. You don't do anything by halves. You're not an insubordinate little shite. You just don't do anything unless you've got all the variables and calculated all the probabilities. You don't know what my team can do or what we have planned so you can't account for us, and that's why -- that's why you go off on your own." -Arthur about Will Category:Characters Category:NWO